Order a drink at Hi Tops, then walk under ten minutes and you can be on Micky's dance floor before the song changes. Gay bars in Los Angeles cluster almost entirely in West Hollywood (WeHo), packed along Santa Monica Blvd between roughly La Cienega and Robertson, with a smaller scene in Silver Lake. Cocktails run about $12 to $18, most bars close at 2am, and you can cover the strip end to end on foot.
Because the whole strip is walkable, the WeHo question is never which bar, it is which order. A handful of venues sit within a few hundred feet of each other, each with a different speed: a sports bar, a video bar, a dance floor, a patio you can actually talk on. Pick a running order and you get a full night without touching a rideshare until you head home.
The 2am clock that shapes the whole night
The single thing to plan around is last call. California stops alcohol service at 2am statewide, so the real window is short: bars fill from 9pm, peak between 11pm and 1am, and last call lands around 1:30am. Arrive by 11pm on a weekend or you spend a chunk of the night in line instead of inside. Drinks are mid-priced for a major US city, well below Vegas or Miami bottle-service rooms, but the clock is tighter, so a smart crawl matters more here than the size of your bar tab.
The Abbey and the core WeHo dance bars
The Abbey Food & Bar is the most famous gay bar in WeHo, a sprawling indoor-outdoor venue that has won MTV Logo's Best Gay Bar twice. It is equal parts restaurant, patio and dance floor, open daily until 2am, with cocktails around $14 to $18. It was sold to Tristan Schukraft and is still operating as of mid-2026, with the adjacent Chapel space part of the same complex. The crowd is mixed, especially on weekends, which is part of why it draws the longest lines on the strip.
Micky's WeHo is the high-energy dance bar on Santa Monica Blvd, with pop, go-go dancers and drag programming. It sold in 2024 to the Hamburger Mary's owners and reopened under new ownership, and cocktails sit around $12 to $16. This is where you go to actually dance rather than sit on a patio. Expect a cover on some nights.
Revolver Video Bar is the long-running video bar on the corner of Santa Monica and Larrabee, the one with the windows thrown open to the street. Drinks run about $12 to $16, and there is generally no cover. It is the easiest place to start a night: relaxed, music videos on the screens, and a crowd that turns over fast as people drift toward the dance floors. Revolver opens earlier on weekends, around 3pm on Saturday and Sunday.
A WeHo bar crawl that actually works
The smart play in West Hollywood is a crawl, not a single destination, because everything is within a few hundred feet of each other. Here is a rough running order that builds from low-key to loud:
- Start at Revolver around 9pm for relaxed drinks and no cover while the strip warms up.
- Walk to Hi Tops, the gay sports bar where beers and cocktails run roughly $8 to $15, for a casual middle gear, especially on a game night.
- Roll into Micky's by 11pm when the dance floor actually fills.
- Finish at The Abbey, which stays busy right up to last call and has the patio space to breathe.
If you want a New Orleans-themed change of pace mid-crawl, The Bayou sits on the same strip with cocktails around $12 to $16. The whole loop is under a 10-minute walk corner to corner, which is the entire appeal: no rideshare between stops, no surge pricing until you head home.
Guided drag-and-bar-crawl tours run in WeHo if you would rather have entry and a show handled for you, which is handy for groups or first-timers who do not know the strip.
Hi Tops, the Bayou and the lower-key end
Not every WeHo night needs a dance floor. Hi Tops is the gay sports bar on Santa Monica Blvd, casual and loud on game days, with the cheapest drinks of the dance-strip cluster at roughly $8 to $15. It is the easiest place to actually hold a conversation.
The Bayou rounds out the relaxed tier with its New Orleans theme and a low-key lounge feel, open most nights to 2am with cocktails around $12 to $16. WeHo also keeps a couple of long-running, dive-leaning neighborhood bars with cheaper pours than the dance clubs and an older, more local crowd than Micky's. If you want to understand what the strip felt like before the bottle-service era, those rooms are the place to look. Pair any two of these for an evening that costs a fraction of a club night and still feels distinctly WeHo.
Are there gay bars outside West Hollywood?
Yes, though the scene is smaller and grittier. Silver Lake, about 20 minutes east of WeHo by car, holds the city's other recognized gay nightlife pocket, including long-running leather and bear bars that run their own Sunday beer busts and themed leather nights. The crowd skews more local and less polished than the WeHo strip, which is exactly why people go.
Silver Lake's queer scene is more spread out, so you are using rideshare between spots rather than walking. For most visitors, the move is to base the night in West Hollywood and treat Silver Lake as a separate, deliberate trip rather than something you fold into the same crawl. If you are mapping a wider night across the city, our Los Angeles nightlife overview covers how the districts connect.
What it costs and how to get home
LA is mid-priced for a major US city, well below Vegas or Miami bottle-service rooms. Here is the rough spread across the gay-bar scene as of mid-2026:
| Spend | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Beer | $7 to $12 |
| Cocktail | $12 to $18 |
| Cover (most WeHo bars) | $0, some dance nights charge |
| Round of four cocktails | $55 to $75 with tip |
Add about 8 to 10% sales tax and tip $1 to $2 per drink or 18 to 20%. Revolver and Hi Tops often have no cover at all, while Micky's and the bigger dance nights may charge.
Getting home is where the budget bites. Rideshare is how nearly everyone leaves WeHo, and Friday and Saturday surge runs 2x to 4x around the 2am bar close. Build that into your night: the ride home can cost more than two of your drinks. Designate a pickup spot a block off Santa Monica Blvd to skip the door-front crush. Do not drive after drinking; DUI enforcement in LA is heavy and the rideshare math is cheaper than the alternative.
When to come: Pride and peak season
June is the high point of the year. WeHo Pride Weekend runs June 5 to 7, 2026, with the parade on Sunday June 7, the OUTLOUD festival and a street fair, and it is the single biggest LGBTQ nightlife spike LA sees. Bars are packed, lines are long, and the energy on Santa Monica Blvd is the reason a lot of people fly in. A separate Hollywood-based LA Pride parade is also reported for June, though the exact date has been harder to pin down, so check the official channels before planning around it.
Outside of Pride, late spring through summer (May to September) is peak: warm evenings, pool and rooftop parties, and heavy group and bachelorette traffic. January and February are the quiet stretch. For weekly programming year-round, drag viewing parties on show nights and the Silver Lake leather bars' Sunday beer busts are reliable anchors. Whatever week you land in, the rule holds: WeHo is walkable, drinks are mid-priced, and the clock runs out at 2am.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the gay district in Los Angeles?
West Hollywood (WeHo) is LA's gay district, and almost everything sits on Santa Monica Boulevard roughly between La Cienega and Robertson. It is walkable, so you can hit five or six bars on foot in a night. Silver Lake has a smaller, more low-key queer scene about 20 minutes east by car.
What is the most famous gay bar in LA?
The Abbey Food & Bar in West Hollywood is the most famous gay bar in LA, a two-time MTV Logo Best Gay Bar winner. It is part restaurant, part dance floor, part patio, open daily until 2am, with cocktails roughly $14 to $18. Expect a line on Friday and Saturday nights.
Are there gay bars outside West Hollywood?
Yes. Silver Lake, about 20 minutes east by car, holds a smaller, grittier queer scene, including long-running leather and bear bars that run their own beer busts and themed leather nights. It is more local and spread out than WeHo. Most visitors still spend the bulk of a night out in West Hollywood because the bars are clustered and walkable.
What night is best for gay bars in WeHo?
Friday and Saturday are the biggest and busiest, with the longest lines after 11pm. Plenty of regulars prefer weeknight programming: Drag Race viewing parties draw crowds on show nights, and the leather bars run reliable Sunday beer busts. Arrive before 11pm on weekends to skip the worst of the queue.
Is The Abbey still a gay bar?
Yes. The Abbey was sold to Tristan Schukraft and is still operating as of mid-2026, with its adjacent Chapel space included. The crowd has always been mixed, especially on weekends, but it remains the anchor gay venue in West Hollywood and still runs drag, dance nights and viewing parties.
How much do drinks cost in WeHo gay bars?
Plan on roughly $7 to $12 for a beer and $12 to $18 for a cocktail across the Santa Monica Boulevard strip, with Hi Tops at the cheaper end and The Abbey at the higher end. Most bars charge no cover, though Micky's and bigger dance nights sometimes do. Add 8 to 10% sales tax and tip $1 to $2 per drink.